U2 show designer reveals all

We’ve been waiting with baited breath for the first installment of U2’s show designer Willie Williams’ tour diary, the ultimate insider’s view of what goes on behind the scenes of the Vertigo tour. The first three entries have now been posted and Willie delivers as expected. Here’s a cool paragraph concerning rehearsals in Vancouver:

“Day One with the band on stage went pear-shaped for a while when we had a go at running through the set. There’s been a proposed set list in place since about mid-January when the band’s music rehearsals kicked into gear. Obviously we’ve modified and shuffled the set list since then, but we did feel we had a stance that could be the basis of an exciting show. It only took one run-through to establish how completely wrong we had been.

“With the number of extraordinary songs in the U2 catalogue, you’d imagine that it would be hard to go wrong but somehow our combined creative genius produced nothing more than an elaborate train wreck. You’d imagine that all you’d have to do would be to write out a list and you’d be sorted, but in terms of building a two hour show that works as a whole, it clearly takes a good deal more than that.”